MLB commish strikes out on moves to shorten games

By L.A. TARONE
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Published: March 5, 2017

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The evidence is clear — Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is nuts.

He has lost his mind.

What other conclusion can you draw?

Manfred sits at the peak of power of a game he evidently doesn’t like very much. Again, what other conclusion can one draw but that Manfred doesn’t like baseball very much? He wants to change virtually every single aspect of it.

I have loved baseball since I was about 5 years old and my dad bought me my first “soft” baseball and my little blue and yellow plastic glove. I have played it, studied it, written about it, broadcast it, and talked about it in depth on sports talk radio. And I hate what is being done to it.

Using the excuse of “the pace of the game,” Manfred has already instituted several rules which have changed the game. And he’s considering a mind-boggling array of additional changes and looking for ways to implement them without the Major League Baseball Players Association’s approval.

Breaking up the double play at second base is now all but illegal. Taking out the catcher at home is illegal. Both plays are exciting and have been part of baseball for over 150 years. Manfred erased them.

This year, he’s made another change — the four-pitch intentional walk has joined flannel uniforms in history. Instead of having to throw four wide ones in the direction of home plate, a pitcher or manager will simply have to signal to the umpire the intent to put the batter on base.

That may seem like a small change — no big deal to the casual fan. But to those of us who’ve been long-time fanatics, it is indeed a big change. All of us have seen the batter who reaches across the plate and slaps one of those “wide ones” to the opposite field for a base hit, the wide one which is a little too wide and sails to the backstop, allowing base runners to move up, the base runner who steals a base during a too-casual wide one, etc. Well, we’ll see them no more. All that has been stripped from the game for the benefit of — what, shaving 60 to 90 seconds off the length of a game? It is certainly not worth the trade-off.

Manfred also instituted another change this year, though mercifully it’s not at the major league level but the low minor league level. It has to do with extra innings. Both the visiting and home teams will start the 10th inning with a runner on second base. His thought was that if you start the inning with a man on second, it will shorten the game — assuming one team or the other can get a runner home from second. What bush-league BS.

Manfred recently appeared on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike” show where he faced a barrage of soft-ball questions. He tried to rationalize his extra-inning proposal by saying it was first being tried in the low minors — adding there was no reason a short-season Rookie League game played in front of virtually no fans should last 18 innings. He’s probably right about that, though I’d be interested in finding out how many do (I doubt very many).

Manfred did not rule out the possibility of that rule eventually making it to the majors.

If he isn’t stopped, Manfred will propose (and perhaps mandate, depending on whether the players association pulls out of the battle, as it did for next year) more changes, some of which will shake the very foundation of the game.

Manfred has talked about a pitch clock, mandating a pitcher throws one within 20 seconds. He’s talked about limiting the number of visits to the mound by both a manager and a pitching coach.

He’s also discussed mandating that a relief pitcher face at least three batters, because changing pitchers takes so long. He’s right about pitching changes taking a lot of time, but I can’t fathom a rule covering it.

He’s said he wants to limit the number of pick-off throws, saying they eat up too much time. He’s talked about robot umpires, which would make ball and strike calls faster.

Manfred has even talked about dropping a strikeout from three strikes to two and a walk from four balls to three. That would make the first change in the strikeout and walk calls since 1888. It would indeed shake the game at its very foundation.

I doubt highly the players association would give its approval for such a major change, but Manfred may not need it. It gave its reluctant approval to waiving the four-pitch intentional walk this year, but has dropped out of an agreement for next year — meaning Manfred can unilaterally make any changes he wants.

Hold on to your Willie Mays cards — who know what’s coming.

Manfred is maniacal about “the pace of the game.” He’s constantly looking for ways to speed up the game. Oddly the thing that slows down that pace the most is a change he’s mandated — instant replay. It’s anything but instant. It can take up to six minutes to get a ruling from New York on a play.

Still, Manfred is constantly talking about speeding up the game. He’s obsessed with it. And come to think of it, THAT shakes the very foundation of the game. Baseball is meant to be played at a pace that allows for discussion and argument among fans — and for consideration of various options from managers. Baseball is the most intellectual of all sports; every little thing matters in it. Making decisions is constant. Baseball requires more thought than other sports because every little thing matters. It cannot be a rapid barrage of action, like hockey or basketball. It wasn’t designed that way.

Still Manfred wants to change the basic design of the game to the greatest degree he can. He claims all of his proposed changes either come from fan suggestions or have the support of fans, yet he can’t point to a single poll to back up the claim. But he ignores one concrete poll which came out last summer — the one I mentioned here, a Public Policy Polling survey which found 55 percent of fans hate the designated hitter and want it dumped (I am among them). Only 33 percent like it.

Not one of Manfred’s proposed or discussed changes would bring any new fans to the game. Do you really think there’s a 12-year-old kid out there who may not be wild about the game but will suddenly fall in love with it because throws to first with a baserunner on are limited to three? It’s nonsensical!

Manfred is a maniac. I’m not wholly surprised he’s been as bad for the game as he has been, after all he was Bud Selig’s boy. But the damage he’s proposing will destroy the game, changing it into something long-time fans will hardly recognize.

He must be stopped. Unfortunately the only ones who can stop him are the owners. And while I’m pretty sure they’re not crazy about all the changes he’s proposed and plans to propose, as long as the dollars keep coming in, they’re not likely to do anything.

The future of baseball does not look good — as long as it’s in the hands of someone who obviously doesn’t like it.

L.A. Tarone is a local news veteran and former Standard-Speaker writer. He’s now working in talk radio and can be heard nightly from 6 to 9 on WILK.

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